Degree Opens Doors of Ministry, Calling

August 17, 2012

For Misty Rose Johnson ’08 Lawrence, her “Asbury experience” — authentic relationships with faculty, a challenging education in theology and access to a broad network of alumni — provided just the boost her leadership and ministry skills needed for maximum impact.

Misty Rose Johnson '08 Lawrence

From middle school on, Lawrence had a clear vision that she would work in vocational ministry due to a profound encounter with Jesus through her grandmother’s church. Bible studies, small groups and service in her local congregation helped her to grow in her faith and learn to lead others.

During her senior year of high school, she applied to Asbury University online and visited the campus with a friend during an Access Weekend offered by the Admissions Department. As she sat in a class and listened to a professor pray for the visiting students with big decisions to make, she felt confirmation that this was the place for her. In the next year, that decision would prove significant.

“I’m an adult child of divorce — I was 18 when my parents split up — and my time at Asbury was essential in the healing process,” she said. “When I started realizing how much pain I was in myself, and how many people in the world needed help identifying it as I did, I started feeling called to practice therapy.”

After graduating with a Bible and Theology degree, Lawrence spent several years working as a youth pastor for a church in Georgia, but her interactions with the youth group reinforced the calling to counsel families. She is currently a full-time graduate student working on a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy.

“I would like to do Christian marriage and family therapy, specifically,” she said. “Whether I’ll have my own practice or do circuit therapy, going from church to church, I don’t know. But I do know that at Asbury, I gained a very deep appreciation and conviction about the importance of Biblically based teaching.”